


the ghost king and background dude

by evalinh



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, Secret Relationship, Social Media, YouTube, there are so many characters i can't mention them all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-01-31 12:11:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18591025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evalinh/pseuds/evalinh
Summary: Will was in the rare situation of being the only member or his friend group to NOT be a Youtuber. His boyfriend, his boyfriend's friends,  his friends, it was weird. The weirdest one was the fact that he was never fully seen in any of their videos.Then came his engagement, then the memes, then the theories.Then Percy Jackson, you ain't slick.





	1. What's Up?

**Author's Note:**

> Not my best work, but it's okay.

Will was as confused as anyone who only had friends that all, mostly, ended up becoming primarily Youtubers for a living. His best friends, his fiance, his fiance's friends, literally he didn't know how he was the only one who ended up with a normal day job. He was a doctor at a hospital. Nowhere near becoming a Youtuber.

 

He and Nico liked their privacy though, so it was common ground between them and their friends that Will won't be involved in their YouTube world. He hadn't even been introduced on Nico's channel. There had accidentally come times that Will could be seen in a reflection when he was out with Nico's friends and they would be vlogging or a snippet of his arm would show for a second, but fans were never that attentive to realize this was not just an assistant for their favorite Youtuber.

 

It wasn't like Will didn't support his friends and fiance on their work, he would come to, almost because he's still a doctor, every convention and stay backstage supporting. It was just the constant recognition he would see them all have on a daily basis, the fact that Percy's fans found out his address, Jason and Piper having to always be conscious of being recognized on a peaceful date night, and the hate comments on his and Nico's relationship that he didn't feel comfortable with.

 

But many variables came into his appearance on the internet.

 

  1. The wedding date
  2. New theories
  3. Percy Jackson ain't slick



 

So let us begin the journey of being the only non-Youtuber in your friend group.

 

* * *

  


Instead of people asking about what the ring looked like, many more questions came along about Nick and Will relationship being exposed to YouTube.

 

“First of all, congrats! I'm so happy for you two! Second, Will, does this mean you're going to announce who you are on Nico's channel?” The third person the told about the engagement was Reyna, first being Hazel, second being Lou Ellen, and she asked the same question the other two asked.

 

“Reyna, I'm not sure if this is the time yet. I love Will with all my heart, but I don't think it's the right time.” Nico was right, it wasn't. They had just moved into their new house, which was pretty stressful, to say the least. Will just got hired at a hospital near their home, no need to ruin that with the internet, and they just didn't want their relationship to be so out there.

 

Unlike the other couples in their friend group, they had not started their relationship after or during YouTube. Will and Nico had actually known each other before YouTube started for Nico in high school.

 

So that reason was out of the way.

 

Another reason out of the way was Nico coming out. He had actually already done three videos coming out for all of his new subscribers and his Twitter bio stating “I'm very gay but my friends think I'm emo” was pretty clear.

 

So that was out of the way.

 

What wasn't out of the way was the single jokes.

 

Nico was notorious for the number of jokes beings single in several of his collab videos. Despite Will being right behind the camera or in a blurred out in the background, the joke was even affecting his flirts. To save you from the cringe in those, we'll move on.

 

Another thing in the way was Will's work. He loved his job, he had always wanted to be a doctor since freshman year of high school. To figure out whatever the fuck is wrong with someone was and be able to problem solve their way to good health and safety was what sparked his joy. To suddenly meet fans of his fiance and feel that awkward feeling of expectation was not sparking any joy in his mind.

 

The internet was a blessing and a curse. You can find what you want to find in a simple click, but it makes you think everything happens in an instant.

 

“So, do you really want to do a little grand reveal?” Nico was editing his video for this week while Will lazily laid on his shoulder. Was it relaxing to have a loved one around? Yes. Was it efficient for doing work? Absolutely not.

 

“I mean, it's your channel. I'm sure the internet has better things to do than worry on if your single jokes are being contradicted.” Nico's chuckled a little.

 

“Yeah, but I think by now everyone is starting to realize they're jokes.” Nick changed the tab and search up a video on YouTube. The video was titled ‘Nico Di Angelo flirting with background dude for 10 minutes straight’. It consisted of close up clips of Nico from various videos giving smiles and winks to Will who was behind the camera.

 

“They seemed to have given you a name.”

 

“Background dude? I work years to become a doctor and get the man of my dreams yet I am degraded to just the guy behind the camera.”

 

“Would you rather be Dr.Background Dude or Background Dude Di Angelo?” Will playfully slapped Nico's face.

 

“We're hyphenating our last names. I need to still keep mine so I can tell kids my name is Dr.Sunshine, then I can tell them I'm a sunshine angel.” Nico kissed Will's forehead, it was time to sleep anyways, they've both got a busy day tomorrow.

 

“Goodnight, dork.”

 

* * *

 

> **_percyjacksonofficial_ ** _reblogged_  
> 
> 
> **_nicolasdianjello_ **

 

Sometime I think that Nico is actually in a relationship. Especially with all these “Background Dude” vids popping up.

 

> **_ghostyneeks_ ** _reblogged_

 

It would be hilarious if he just came on his channel one day and just goes “Hey Ghosters, and other cringe names, btw I've been married for like 5 years. See ya a VidCon!”

 

> **_percabeth-is king_ ** _reblogged_

 

He acts so single but boy we been knew what was on that clip of your Draw My Life! We saw you try to draw a blonde boy, that was definitely not Jason, in your loved one's segment!

 

_#don't lie to us nico #ghostking #nico di angelo #team half-blood #background dude #we seriously need a new name for him #I'm thinking sunshine boy since #he's shining in nico's life_

 

* * *

 

> _**percyjacksonofficial** reblogged_
> 
>  
> 
> **_halfbloodied-withemotion_ **

 

The romantic tension between Nico and whoever is behind the camera in several of Percy and Jason's videos is so clear. They better be dating

 

> **_piper-not-piper_ ** _reblogged_

 

The VidCon panel is gonna be interesting

 

> **_jassasypersassy_ ** _reblogged_

 

I swear, background dude is gonna get more fans than the actual Team Half-blood


	2. challenge video

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico living his morning routine and Will realizes kids are hella stupid.
> 
> Percy Jackson needs to get off every platform that interacts with his fans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long!

_percyjacksonoffcial reblogged_

 

 

> _XxnymalymaxX_

 

> This background dude meme keeps getting so good, but it took that for me to realize how often Nico keeps his life behind the camera to secretive. Like, yeah he's super ok that with being in Frank and Hazel's vlogs, but he keeps the photos in the background of his videos and his home blurred. I respect that privacy but it seems as if recently, with the move and all, he's been really conflicted with sharing a secret. That is emotion you can't edit out.

 

_#damn neeks #you got everyone intellectual with your relationship status #no pressure tho_

 

* * *

  


Percy Jackson shouldn't be tagging on Tumblr anymore, but it was funny to see the fans freak out and think he's joking over something he's known about for years. The ‘renaming background dude to sunshine boi’ thing was what got the fans really excited, it gave them actual evidence.

 

This was not a situation that needed evidence.

 

Luckily, neither Nico nor Will actually went on Tumblr often. Nico, who was known to be quite Tumblr famous about two years ago, had taken a break from the infamous website at the peak of his YouTube career. He only really used it these days to do Q and As.

 

But, Twitter was a different story.

 

Twitter was where the meme spread.

 

Obviously, when your idol likes or reblogs a post you made, it's common that one would want to share the experience on Twitter. Fans find other fans quickly and the discussion comes along, then a fan had tagged Nico in a tweet.

 

**maggie**

_@maglovesyt_

@nicodiangelo who is behind the camera anywAy?

 

Nico didn't respond, as it was often that he didn't notice tweets he had been tagged in, but it still stood out to him. People were genuinely interested, in a meme-y way but still interested, on the small details. It was amusing to say the least.

 

Today he had to schedule his video, brainstorm new video ideas for next month, then go meet up with Piper and Jason for lunch. It was a basic schedule for a Wednesday, Will would come home from work at 6 then they would figure out dinner together.

 

Nico didn't quite have a subject he primarily focused on his channel. He did a lot of things. Conspiracy theories every month, occasional vlogs, collab challenges, and just discovering how weird the internet or technology had gotten. It was nice to ad a little spice into his career.

 

After scheduling his video for tomorrow, he brought out his ideas notebook. Flipping to a clean page, he had seen one thing that was in a much neater writing than his.

 

_I love being your significant annoyance <3 _

_-Will_

 

First, that was adorable and thank god he could call this man his fiance. Second, how dare he write in Nico's notebook in _blue_ ink. The entire book was in black for a reason: the _aesthetic_.

 

He drew a heart around the message, flipped to the next page, and started planning.

 

He wasn't done but was already running late to lunch. Then he realized he had to post a vlog and raced to find his vlog camera which, thankfully, Will placed on his bookshelf when organizing.

 

He turned it on and started the vlog.

 

“Hey Ghosters and other cringe names, we’re back with another vlog here on my new second channel and I am running late.” He turned the camera towards his desk which was a little messier than it was before.

 

“The mess of moving and planning my next main channel video-” He turned the camera back on himself.”-has made me late to lunch Piper and Jason. But that just means I gotta get there faster before they notice. To Piper and Jason who are watching this, sorry!”

 

He turned off the camera to change out of his comfort clothes, which contained one of Will’s shirts and some baggy sweatpants from high school, and into something a bit more appropriate for a social media influencer outside. He put on the same black jeans he had been wearing for the past two days of going out, a grey shirt, and a black jacket.

 

Gotta stay on brand for the meme.

 

He grabbed his old ‘Going Out’ bag, a small backpack he’s had since freshman year, and stuffed in his wallet, keys, and his camera then ran out the door.

 

It was a bad day for traffic, but it was a good excuse to be late. About thirty minutes since realizing he had to go to lunch, he got a call from Piper.

 

“Hey, Neeks! Where are you?”

 

“Stuck in traffic, you and Jason are already there?”

 

“Just got here, we ran into fans on our way so just wanted to warn you now.”

 

“Thanks, Pipes. See you in a bit.” Just gotta wait it out.

 

* * *

  


Will was having a weird day at the hospital. One of his first new patients was a 12-year-old boy, with what seemed to be a burn, who was forced to explain what he did by his angry mother.

 

“I did the salt and ice challenge. The challenge that has you pour salt on your arm-”

 

“Put ice on it and watch how long you can endure the pain. My friends were stupid enough to do that in high school.” He helped the burn the best way he could.

 

“So, who convinced you to do the salt and ice challenge?” The boy was reluctant to answer but realized he really didn’t have anything to lose.

 

“I saw a video of a youtuber doing it.” That shocked Will more than it should’ve.

 

“What _youtuber_ would make you do something that stupid?”

 

“You wouldn’t know him.”

 

“Try me, I get consulted by youtubers all the time about the safety of the challenges they are about to do. I’m sure I’m bound to know one of them.” The boy rolled his eyes.

 

“Fine, it was Leo Valdez.” Will then realized that this kid was a Youtuber superfan. That video of Leo, Piper, Jason, and Percy was filmed years ago. Even in that video Jason, being who he is, warned the audience to not try it at home.

 

“Oh, I’ve definitely met him.” The boy’s eyes widened.

 

“You have!” Will nodded.

 

“Yep, known him for a while now and you young man are good to go for now.” He turned to the mother. “He’s good to go and make sure you carefully watch over what he’s watching and not have a situation like this happen again.  

 

It left him some time to realize, children are so easily told to do things that are dangerous. It just made the internet a much worse place than before. Yes, all his friends whenever they do challenges they, first consult him to see if it was okay, but also say “Please, for the love of god, don’t do this at home.” but after that kid, he notices that sometimes kids don’t listen.

 

He got home from work to Nico finishing up his vlog for the day.

 

“See you next time, Ghosters.” Then Nico covers the camera to look back at Will. Both of them looked very worn out and tired.

 

“Hey, babe. How was your day, you look pretty tired.” Nico gave Will a hug and Will gripped on.

 

“Yeah, it was a stressful day. You look pretty worn out too, how was lunch with Piper and Jason.”

 

“It was good, but getting mobbed by a bunch of fans was less than enjoyable. Like, it’s really cool that I get to see so many of the people who have been watching me build my career online, but sometimes the questions get weird. Today I was even asked about what I thought about the background dude meme.”Will looked down at his fiance.

 

“And what did you say?”

 

“I said that it was funny and enjoyable to watch the internet over analyze every look behind the camera I make.” Will chuckled and let go of Nico who was still holding on.

 

“Let go please, I need to change into something more comfortable.” He let go and headed to the kitchen to get their microwave dinner while Will went into the bedroom to change.

 

When he came back, Nico had their dinners ready on the coffee table and was pulling up a movie on the TV from Netflix.

 

“You want to finish The Umbrella Academy or rewatch the first season of The Office, again.”

 

“The Office, I’m not finishing Umbrella Academy until I can get that image of Allison and Luther out of my head.”Will shuddered.

 

“The Office it is.” They started the show and their dinner.

 

“I forgot to ask, how was your day?”

 

“Weird, I got a kid that did a stupid challenge because of a Youtube video.”

 

“Be careful what you say, the other half of your bills is right here.” Will hit Nico’s shoulder playfully.

 

“Shut up.”  
  
“Okay, okay, continue.” Will sighed and played around with his food.

 

“This kid watched Leo’s video on the salt and ice challenge-”  
  
“From freshman year of college?”   
  
“Yes, stop interrupting. Anyways, this kid was influenced by that video to do it and ended up getting some serious burns on him. It made me wonder, do kids only ever listen to the interesting parts and never the warning on Youtube videos? I know for sure it had a warning on it.”

 

“Damn, right it did. Percy yelled that in the beginning and that’s just become a tradition now..”  
  
“Exactly, he yelled out a warning to not do it but this kid still did it.” Nico looked at Will.

 

“Hey, look at me.” Will made eye contact with him.

 

“Kids are stupid. Everyone knows that filling their brains with idea that are stupid makes them more stupid, they don’t have someone who is not stupid right next to them to stop them. That’s why you and Annabeth are so important in out friend group, can you count a number of challenges we would’ve done if it weren’t for you two?” Will though back to days of planning collabs in the group chat.

 

“Percy and Leo were about to do the Tide Pod Challenge.” Nico nodded rapidly.

 

“Yes and we all protected that.” Will looked at Nico unconvinced,

 

“You said you were up for the challenge because it was ‘On brand to almost die’.” Nico searched for a way bring back his point.

 

“And _you_ stopped me from doing it. It’s other youtubers and my responsibility to remind kids to not be stupid. Okay?” Nico smiled and Will smiled back.

 

“Okay.”

* * *

  


**Percy JackSON**

@perceusjacksonYT

_I’m a youtuber with a smart girlfriend. Get at my level._

 

**Likes**

 

**Bo Bana**

_@hannahbana_

Have y'all heard the new secret footage of Nico answer to the background dude meme? Haven’t been about to find the video

 

 

> **ya boi**
> 
> _@marieitsme_
> 
> @hannahbana Here’s a link! [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4HOA_R6Yzk ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4HOA_R6Yzk)

  


**calla**

_@artymoves23_

Isn’t it funny that Nico is just avoiding the question to whether or not it’s false and just laughs off the question? Or am I just over analyzing?


	3. change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy Jackson is the Tom Holland of Team Half-Blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a tad bit short, but I felt as if this was all that was really needed to be shown before what I have planned next.

**Nico the Ghost King**

_ @nicodiangelo _

Hey, guys! So today’s video is going to be pretty special. A really good friend of mine gave me the idea to do something like this. It’s a little different than what I usually make, but I think it’s nice to have a little break from my usual content for a bit :)

* * *

  
  


As Nico thought, fans thought that this was a video on the background dude situation. But it was not, it was, in fact, a video on listening and thinking about your actions before you do them. Percy didn’t help that message come through.

 

**Percy JackSON**

@perceusjacksonYT

@nicodiangelo OMG IS IT TIME!

 

It was not a good day for Nico’s twitter after Percy’s tweet. Nico had the strong urge to drive to Percy’s house and attempt murder for view, but then he got a phone call from Annabeth.

 

“Hey, Nico! You don’t need to worry, Percy has been banned from using Twitter for the next couple of weeks and the tweet was deleted. I don’t know how many people got screenshots but let’s just hope everything gets situated.” As usual, Annabeth got the gist of what was actually going on.

 

“Thank you so much. Unfortunately, that doesn’t solve my own Twitter feed.”

 

“The only thing you can do right now it to stay off social media until the hour after you post the video.” He can hear the whines of a certain person who sucks at keeping secrets. 

 

“Nico, I'm sorry. I have to take care of some business, call you later!”

 

“Bye.” He hung up and collapsed on his bed.

 

The actual video was an idea that came from Will, coming from their conversation about listening and relying on your own common sense and the common sense of others. It was quite abstract to talk seriously about such a subject, considering he makes unsolved mysteries and the occasional collar challenge on his own channel. 

 

I wasn’t like Nico to really get off something he was used to, which is why it was so difficult for him to not feel guilty when he forgot an upload of vacation, but this was different. Whenever he made ‘different’ types of videos, it was always uploaded to a friend’s channel. This time he was changing things up for someone he cared about.

 

He got up and looked right at his laptop, ready to post the video. 

 

The publish button was right there, all he had to do was click it. But there was one last detail that popped into his head before posting.

 

A small, tiny detail.

 

He took the video back to his editing software and added a black screen that said in yellow text, “Thank you, Will.”

 

He re-processed it and was ready to publish a video he was a little happier with.

 

He closed his laptop the moment the video was posted and turned off all his notifications on all his social media accounts. He let the video be a moment of its own, and let the thank you at the end be nothing but a small message to the man his fans had no clue of.

* * *

  
  


**Michelle Kellie-Ellie**

_ @michealmelllie _

THEORIST! WHO THE HELL IS WILL? #nicodiangelo

 

**ASdfGHjkL**

@merrycarrylarry

Anyone know any Youtubers named Will that have some connection to team half-blood? #nicodiangelo

 

**Benn**

_ @cumbersnatched _

Low key disappointed that out very own Percy Jackson brought my sunshine boi hopes up :( #nicodiangelo #whypercy

 

* * *

  
  


Twitter was livid and Annabeth didn't even try to look at Tumblr. She scrolled throughout the Nico Do Angelo tag with an apologetic Percy resting his head on her lap.

 

“You want me to read out another?” Percy groaned, he had already heard her read 20 tweets of a similar nature about the video. 

 

“No, I learned my lesson.” Annabeth smiled and closed her phone.

 

“Good, now I know you care about Will and Nico, but it's their responsibility on if they want to announce their relationship or not. It is not your responsibility to fanboy over their relationship, which nobody on the internet knows about.” She squeezed his cheeks and laid back on the couch.

 

“So now what?” She shrugged.

 

“I don't know. You can't make an apology video, no one thinks you did anything wrong. Will’s name being out there is entirely Nico’s idea, but I don’t think with the rate you’re going on you can really strongly mention that.” Percy sighed as he played around with the strands of his wife’s blonde hair.

 

“Staying quiet on the situation is the best bet?”

 

“Yeah, just stay subtle, okay?” Percy made a face and changed his voice to be higher pitched.

 

"Yes, mam." Annabeth giggled a little as she looked into his sea green eyes.

 

"You are the Tom Holland of our team, and I still love you for that."

* * *

 

_ chasingmaggie reblogged _

 

_ mybloodhalfblood posted _

Okay, so I know we’re all freaking out with Nico recently, but I’m just going to leave my two cents.

My cousin had gone to high school with a bunch of members of team half-blood, so he lent me his yearbook so I would stop annoying him with questions(he was in the same grade as Leo, Jason, and Piper). I went back, just to check if anyone named Will was close to any of the members aND OH MY GOD WAS THERE INFORMATION! So there’s this guy named Will Solace that hung around Nico pretty often, they’re in a lot of pictures together and seemed really close. Then in the superlatives section, there is a “Most Likely to Forget They Haven’t Announced Their Relationship” AND IT WAS WILL AND NICO!


	4. rumor has it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rumors are out, but how will the public media handle it. Much more, how will Team Half-Blood fix this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a disclaimer, I've never actually read the Magnus Chase books so I'm going off of what my sister says about the characters(I've read the main Percy Jackson(PJO, HOO, TOA) series but haven't read Magnus Chase. My sister, on the other hand, has read all of Magnus Chase but has only read The Lightning Thief. Ironic)

Since the video came out, Nico had not been on any type of social media in weeks, but his friends told him the gist of the drama happening as soon as they found out. Hazel was the first to tell him and the continual news just got worse from there.

 

“Nico, someone for really personal from high school. We’re trying to get it taken down, but for now, just know that you aren’t going to be able to hide your relationship forever.”

 

“Nico, Will’s private Instagram is being stalked over and he can’t hide much any longer either.”

 

“Will, don’t panic, but some fans are figuring out things pretty quickly and it seems as if you can’t hide forever.”

 

This was bad, really bad.

 

Will came home that evening quite stressed at that point. With all the calls from both their friends and some wedding planners, it was not a good day.

 

“I’m sorry for getting you involved in this-”

 

“Don’t be,” Will sighed then continued talking.”-It’s not your fault your fans have really good research tools, we all just need to be a little more careful. I’m sure everyone is trying to find a way to fix this mess.” Nico held onto Will’s torso tightly as they laid in the bed. His laptop was still in his office, it had been there for the past week. Untouched.

* * *

 

Little to their knowledge, their friends were in fact actively trying to fix most of the damage. Percy had called for a meeting at his and Annabeth’s house, inviting not only Team Half-Blood but some specialist he knew.

 

“Everyone, I believe we remember our good friends Travis and Connor Stoll.” Half the people in the room had the very  _ unpleasant  _ memories of the Stoll Brothers flash in their minds due to their pranks throughout childhood.

 

“Percy, why did you invite them in on this?” Annabeth asked with annoyance and confusion on her boyfriend’s choice of help.

 

“Well, we keep in contact-”

 

“We work for your management.” Everyone in the room was surprised and intrigued by how they were going to help now knowing the management was in on this.

 

“What is your job for the management?” Piper squinted her eyes at the brothers. They smiled proudly.

 

“We’re the people who fix social media type scandals, we can also hack into accounts and fix up giant scandals that have to do with being information based.” 

 

“We aren’t deleting anything, that just makes the situation more suspicious and makes things a little worse on our side.” Annabeth brought on a strong point if anyone were to catch them in the act the reputations of all of Team Half-Blood would crumble. Travis rolled his eyes, upset that he wouldn’t be able to use his hacking skills that he spent a whole college degree on.

 

“That is a good point, which is why there could be an alternative.” They all looked at Connor.

 

“This alternative would have to do with VidCon since that is coming up next month. We have had a request for you all to be in a group panel.”

* * *

  
  


**RUMOR PATROL** _ With Magnus Chase and Alex Fierro _

_ LevverTV _

 

[Rumor Patrol Intro]

 

**MC** : Hello there and welcome back to Rumor Patrol on Levver News, I’m Magnus Chase and I don’t care about half of these rumors.

**AF** : And I’m Alex Fierro. Now let’s get on with the first rumor so I can go eat my lunch.

**MC** : Is Nico Di Angelo in a secret relationship? Now I myself, like to keep things personal so I would totally understand if Nico would want to hide any part of his life.

**AF** : Fans have been speculating for years that this Youtube star has been in a relationship behind the camera, but this time they might’ve taken it too far. In his most recent video, Nico had thanked a friend of his for giving him the idea to create the video on logic and common sense. This man’s named was shown to be Will.

**MC** : Fans went insane and took to social media to figure out who this mysterious Will guy was. Until a fan on Tumblr had shown evidence going back from when Team Half-Blood was in high school. The evidence was showing that Nico and a man named Will Solace had been in a relationship prior to Nico’s Youtube fame.

**AF** : So Magnus, what are your thoughts on this whole drama? Has Annabeth spoken to you on any of this?

**MC** : I’m just here to show everything we know. This whole situation was a complete violation of their privacy, so I’m not surprised that Nico has been off social media since the video was posted. As for Annabeth, she and the rest of Team Half-Blood have been silent since the high school information came out. I don’t want an invasion on her, or Percy’s, or anyone associated with them, privacy to be exposed the way Nico’s was. 

**AF** : Yeah, but do you think the rumors are true?

**MC** : With how big this became, I’m going to bet that this is a situation we don’t get involved in.

**AF** : Fine, next rumor!

  
  


**Comments**

 

Sean Conlon

I think they handled the Nico situation well. Even with Magnus’ connections to the team,  it’s not their right to go so deep into a situation that is already deep and I think that’s really great of them to know that. I think the fans of team half blood need to understand that too.

 

Antonio Higgins

Team Half-Blood fans are seriously crazy. I'm a casual fan of theirs, their content is diverse and so are they. The serious fans need to understand respect, especially when their favorite creators are trying to teach them that.

 

Jaime Reyes

I can’t believe some of their fans are so disrespectful! >:(

 

* * *

  
  


“So  _ that’s  _ the idea you came up with?” Team Half-Blood came to Nico and Will’s place a couple of days after their initial ‘let’s fix this’ meeting. Nico was not quite adequate with the plan they came up with.

 

“Yup! Sounds pretty solid, right?” Percy tried to put on a tone to make Nico agree with him.

 

“Percy, with the trouble you’ve caused in this situation, I don’t think I can agree with your plans at this point.” Piper put a hand on his shoulder as she sat next to him.

 

“Nico, this was the best we could’ve come up with. It doesn't fix everything, we could figure out any way that would make this situation any better. You just have to have faith in us that this will work out smoothly.” Nico looked at all his friends, that were all waiting for a response.

 

“Will, what do you think?” The blond was thinking of all the possible outcomes if the plan worked out.

 

“It does seem like continuing to hide will only do more harm than good. Although, we will have to be quite careful with public viewing now that this new information is ut with the public. You all want a big reveal, so spoiling it wouldn’t help much.” He looked at all his friends now waiting for him to respond.

 

“I think that’s a pretty good idea if we just do a little tweaking.” They all looked at Nico for a second approval.

 

“If Will’s good with that, I’m good with it.” Their friends all cheered with the stress of the two saying no was no longer a problem.

 

The fans coming to VidCon were in for one hell of a treat.

  
  
  
**_New Video from Team Half-Blood :_ ** _ We’re Going To VidCon _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you really enjoyed, next chapter WE ARE OFF TO VIDCON!


	5. vidcon part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're literally at VidCon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not really sure if I like how this turned out(I'll edit it through for a better flow once I finish the story) but it'll do because I've been meaning to finish this chapter for a while now. 
> 
> I have also never mentioned what type of Youtubers everyone it like.
> 
> Jason and Percy: Basically the Dolan Twins with separate channels   
> Piper: Think Haley Pham-ish (  
> Annabeth: Crash Course type videos with skits  
> Leo: If Drew Gooden and Danny Gonzalez were the same person + extra memes  
> Frank and Hazel: Couples goals vlog channel  
> Calypso: Not so much a Youtuber anymore but was kind like Piper before going into modeling  
> Nico: Shane Dawson conspiracies 
> 
> Yeah, that's all I can think of for right now.

Will was not the biggest fan of conventions, actually. They were always quite noisy and there would always be a fight somewhere every year. They always came at the worst time too, like a shit ton of controversies would come flooding in just as VidCon or Playlist Live would come up. Although in the situation he was in, with Nico’s drama, this worked at their advantage.

 

Lead up to VidCon, Team Half-Blood announced that they would all be attending VidCon and have a QnA panel. The comment section was full of fans knowing that they would have to confront the sunshine boi situation, which worked in their favor to create hype and popularity for their panel.

* * *

 

**Leonardo McClain**

They better answer those sunshine boi questions becAUSE IM STILL FREAKING OUT AND CONFUSED

 

**They call me impulse**

CAN EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP ABOUT THE WILL SHIT! IM SICK AND TIRED OF ALL OF THESE INVASIONS OF P R I V A C Y

* * *

 

Of course, not all of them were as excited as others because of how long this fiasco had been going and the obvious invasions of privacy. They just wanted this situation over and just watch their favorite do stupid shit.

 

So as the day VidCon was quickly approaching, the plan was already in motion.

 

Will and Nico made sure that their public appearances were careful in the case that the flame of this mess wouldn’t grow anymore. Nico continued making videos and pre-filmed for his upcoming trip to VidCon. Everything he posted on his channel was his typical topics and he never addressed why he was gone from social media for so long, which got some fans worried.

 

Nevertheless, the days counting down to VidCon quickly decreased and life was almost back to normal. 

 

“So, what do you think their reaction is going to be?” They lied in bed the day before they would leave for VidCon, Nico’s back facing Will’s face as the blond had his arms wrapped around his Youtuber fiance. They both had pretty busy days, with the emails and notifications from all of Nico’s social media always coming in since the VidCon video and him having to ignore them. Thankfully, no one had figured out the hospital Will had worked at(or at least no one spread it online), but he did notice two preteens that had come in to visit a relative looking at him and whispering to themselves.

 

“Well, you gotta film it because I think it’ll be personally amusing.” Nico chuckled and jokingly shoved his elbow against Will’s stomach which caused the blonde to laugh a little.”What? I’m serious, I’m going to be at the panel the second half so I’m still gonna have to answer a couple of questions. I plan on having a funny first impression.” Nico scoffed.

 

“Yeah, then they’ll hear you’re a doctor and  _ that’ll  _ be fun.” Will rolled his eyes and tugged onto Nico a little more.

 

“Doctors can have fun too, just look at the life I get to live. All my friends are super successful on a platform that gives them amazing opportunities as well as career instability! One of them just happens to be the man I plan on spending the rest of my life with.”   
  
“Can we please not talk about this? The fact that the instability of my career keeps me awake at night already is not needed right now, let’s just go to sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow.” Will kissed the top of Nico’s forehead.

 

“Fine, goodnight.”

 

“Night.”

 

* * *

  
  


Will had to borrow from the oversized clothes from Nico’s closet that day. They weren’t over oversized, they were just a little too big for Nico and almost fitting for Will(It was all clothes Nico bought in the wrong size and just shoved into a drawer). He had to borrow clothes that day because Will didn’t own any black clothes. Today, he was carpooling Jason, Piper, Leo, and going to the airport to pick up Calypso from her business trip to Fiji. As well as the fact he would be acting as an assistant to the main trio, he thought he would 'look the part' as his siblings who went into acting would say when he asked why they were dressed the way they were. 

 

“Will, I’m not that into fashion like a lot of my family, even if I’m a fashion channel, but  _ what in the world is that outfit _ ?” Will had just showed up at Piper and Jason’s house where he was meet Piper and Jason, he had already dropped Nico off at the convention center. Leo hadn’t arrived yet, presumably he was still talking to Calypso on FaceTime, so they had enough time for Piper to judge Will’s outfit of the day.

 

“Look, I just took some clothes from Nico’s closet since my closet just screams SUNSHINE! Plus-” She stopped him before he could continue. 

 

“You are going to introduce yourself in front of a shit ton of teens. Teens will judge every part of you, we as Youtubers would know. If you want to make a good impression, treat this like-I don’t know- a job interview?” It was at the moment Jason came out the front door, took one look at Will. He took a deep breath in and another deep breath out.

 

“Oh, god, no.” 

 

“I know, right?” Will rolled his eyes at them.

 

“Look, I’m not that into the whole ‘trendy fashion’ thing. I just wear what makes me comfortable.”

 

“No, come in. We need to fix this.”

 

God, this was going to be a long day,

 

* * *

  
  


Nico's start to the morning was actually really calm. Will had dropped him off at the convention center a little early, meaning no fans to crowd him just yet. He hung out in the break room reserved for influencers and snacked on whatever they had. 

 

He scrolled through Twitter to see what messes were going outside of the safe area he was in. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

* * *

**Crutchboy**

_ @chuckycheesesbitch _

HOLY SHIT CLARISSE JUST BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THIS DUDE #VIDCON

* * *

 

Nevermind, of course it would be Clarisse who would be causing trouble (not like she didn't last year). The feisty fitness Youtuber had a thing for starting a fight with anyone who wronged her in any way, her temper was being worked on according to Nico's sources but it was a slow and steady process. This lead to people think more on Clarisse than Nico, lifting the stress he had felt all morning.

 

"Nico, need a drink of water?” He looked to see a beautiful pair of brown eyes.

 

"Hey, Hazel. Yeah, a nice cold cup of water would be nice for the moment." She smiled and sat next to him, placing the cup of water in front of him. He took a sip and exhaled his worries and anxieties for later that day.

 

"Where's Frank?" She looked at her phone.

 

"He needed to take a call from his mom. He should be back at the convention center in a bit, just in time for the panel. Is Will at Jason and Piper’s right now?" He nodded and took another sip.

 

"Yeah, I've been hanging in here for the time being waiting for everybody else to get here since he dropped me off." She nodded and took a sip from her own cup of water. It was water that had some lemons in it because this was LA and who doesn’t follow Instagram trends here? But it was in a way uplifting to their spirits.

 

Hazel noticed the moment of silence between her and her half brother. His face was already showing that he was worried, with millions of thoughts running through his mind. She put her hand on his, “Hey, look at me.”

 

He looked up to once again see those beautiful eyes.

 

“Today is going to be fine, everyone is going to love Will and be understanding of why you kept this for so long. If someone doesn’t, you know you have all of us on your side to support you, okay?” He showed a small smile.

 

“Okay.” She smiled brightly. Her phone rang a little ad it lit up. She checked it and turned it off.

 

“Frank says some of the others have gathered around the panel area already to help prepare, we better get going and join them.” They got up and went their merry way.

 

Today was going to be just fine.

  
  


* * *

**annieimokay**

_ @imokayannie _

y’ALL WILDERNESS SQUAD HAS ONE HELL OF A STYLISH ASSISTANT! #vidcon

* * *

 

Okay, so, sure, Will looked a bit more stylish than usual, but he didn’t expect the response to be so...extra. He didn’t have a personal Twitter, wasn’t a big fan of screaming opinions, but when you’re carpooling with four other people with major followings on every social media platform he knew, it was hard to avoid the responses.

 

It was hard to avoid Nico’s prepared comments on his outfit backstage of the panel, half an hour before it started, as well.

 

“My, my, my, Will. You look a little different than when you first dropped me off.” He was one of the last of their group to arrive at the panel room. Nico took one look at him, his face was almost impressed.

 

“This is why you don’t leave me to carpool with the Youtubers that are fashion based. I gotta return these to Jason after this-”

 

“Ask him if you can keep them, you look good in those.” Will blushed slightly at Nico’s compliment.

  
  


“You’re just saying that because I’m wearing your favorite color.” Nico shrugged.

 

“What can I say? Everything looks good in black, even annoying sunshines like you.”

 

“Hey! Lovebirds! Can you two help out instead of flirting?” 

 

* * *

  
  


Will knew how big the panels were, but he still wasn’t prepared for the fact that every panel gets bigger and bigger each year. There were hundreds of teenagers and young adults alike with familiar merch items in that crowd, it was a large crowd. It was almost scary.

 

Almost.

 

The others were getting their mics checked and Will would be getting a holding mic as his arrival on stage would be a little later during the sitting section of the panel. He looked upon the sea of people, wonder which of them were people involved in the social media fiasco for the past couple of months. It was just strange to see people away from an online presence to a real life one.

 

“Hey, Will. There might be a slight change of plan.” Will turned around to see Percy and Annabeth smiling wildly.

 

“Wh-what change?” 

 

“Let us just tell you, it’s a surprise for Nico. Let’s call it an engagement present.”

 

* * *

  
  


"Hello! How are you campers doing this afternoon?" Once all the members were introduced, Percy started the show and the crowd was blazing with cheers. It was like they were superstars.

 

"Welcome to VidCon 2019, we are Team Half-Blood!" The crowd cheered wildly. Nico almost got nervous, like he did usually, but he looked at Hazel who was giving him an assuring look.

 

"Welcome to our panel, to start off we're going to do one or two challenges on stage to get this start then we all have a special surprise before the QnA!"

 

The games were nothing special, it was what they would often play in groups in collabs. A simple game of Cards Against Humanity and another game that Leo never thought of a name for but they still played was all they had in store for that first part. There were some memorable quotes though:

 

"I do not identify as Sebastian from the Little Mermaid."

 

"I can't believe it would be Frank who ruined our Youtube careers once and for all."

 

"Leo would make an amazing drag queen, right Calypso?"

 

"Don't give her any video ideas!"

 

"Ruining my life in front of thousands of people NOT CLICKBAIT!"

 

"What's up, it's ya boi Skinny Dick!"

 

Backstage, Will was cracking up. He loved see them like this, being free, funny, and unapologetic about what they say because they're on stage. There is no redo button, no editing out, just them genuinely having fun with people to entertain.

 

He loved that about these guys.

 

"Okay, now that this whole icebreaker is over and all of our laughs and nerves are out, we have a special video surprise!" Will gripped onto his mic.

 

Nico was out on stage cocking his eyebrow. Video surprise?  He didn't remember that in the original plan. Percy looked at his Ghost King friend and winked before looking upon the screen.

 

"Hi, my name is Percy Jackson and I...kinda messed up." It was Percy in his normal shooting set up. It was obviously late at night when he made this and there was a detail Nico noticed, this video was made the night they had the meeting about fixing his problem.

 

The Percy in the video scratched the back of his head, "You see, a really good friend of mine is in this great relationship that I have been supporting like I'm his cool dad, but a couple of tweets and a misunderstanding on my part kinda, accidentally made his private life public."

 

"It sure did." Annabeth then appeared next to him. She looked about ready to go to bed, but there was something in her that had to film this video.

 

"I wanted to apologize once more to the greatest emo I've ever known-"

 

"Percy, he's out of the emo phase already."

 

"-because today is going to be the day that we all tell you all what he's been hiding. So, give a big round of applause for the coolest doctor I know."

 

"He's the only doctor you're friends with."

 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I would also ask that whoever puts up that creepy information about how we grew up, please take them down. It was not worth sharing to the world to fangirl about people's secrets for me to almost lose very awesome people in my life." The couple waved at the camera their goodbye and the lights turned on. Nico was in shock. He didn't expect such a kind message to be sent, he looked at the equally awestruck crowd. Some of them were on their phones with tense looks on their face, it was obvious that they were either live tweeting or deleting some very unwanted post.

 

"Everyone give a warm welcome to Will Solace." Will walked his way across the stage. He cheers were louder than everyone else's as if they had all this pent up excitement explode in this room.

 

"Hey, is this seat taken?" He said into his mic as he made it to the empty seat next to Nico. There were even cheers of people hearing his voice.

 

"Yeah, actually, some annoying but cute guy is supposed to sit here, but I think you'll do." He sat down and sneakingly handed a USB to Nico.

 

“Percy says it’s an engagement present, I looked through all the footage and I think it’s quite an interesting one.” Will whispered with a smile. Nico smiled back and covered his mic so no one could hear.

 

“We’ll see about that when we get home.”

  
  
“Well isn't that an interesting announcement, now it’s time for the QnA!”

 

Here comes the fun.

* * *

  
  


**Vidcon**

_ @VidCon _

Nico Di Angelo has confirmed his relationship to Will Solace at the Team Half-Blood panel! We at VidCon would like to congratulate the couple on their announcement! #VidCon

 

**Mellonie**

_ @dangermelon _

OMG ASDFGHJKL THEY REALLY HAD TO MAKE IT DRAMATIC #VIDCON

 

**maggie**

_ @maggielovesyt _

LOL I LITERALLY CALLED IT #VIDCON

 

**bo bana**

_ @hannahbana _

EVERYONE IS FREAKING OUT! #VIDCON

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, we'll finish the VidCon panel in the next chapter.


End file.
